4.  The applicant was born in 1962 and lives in Varaždin.
5.  On 30 March 1988 the applicant brought a civil action in the Varaždin Municipal Court (Općinski sud u Varaždinu) against a certain J.V., seeking to recover possession of a house in Varaždin, claiming that the house had been donated to him. In his statement of claim (tužba) he indicated 1,000,000 former Yugoslav dinars (YUD) as the value of the subject matter of the dispute.
6.  In his submission to the court of 1 March 2001 the applicant indicated that the value of the subject matter of the dispute was 101,000 Croatian kunas (HRK) and explained that he had adjusted the value in line with inflation, the change of currency (see paragraphs 20-22 below) and the increase of his claim.
7.  On 25 September 2001 the applicant amended his claim, seeking also to register ownership of the house in his name in the land register.
8.  On 5 July 2002 the Municipal Court ruled against the applicant. On 26 November 2002 the Varaždin County Court (Županijski sud u Varaždinu) dismissed an appeal (žalba protiv presude) by the applicant and upheld the first-instance judgment.
9.  On 6 March 2003 the applicant lodged an appeal on points of law (revizija protiv presude) against the second-instance judgment. On 26 March 2003 the Varaždin Municipal Court declared his appeal on points of law inadmissible ratione valoris because it considered that the value of the subject matter of the dispute was below the statutory threshold of HRK 100,000. It found that the value of the subject matter of the dispute indicated by the applicant in his statement of claim had been YUD 1,000,000, which, when converted into kunas, was HRK 1 (one kuna).
10.  The applicant appealed against that decision (žalba protiv rješenja), arguing, inter alia, that in his submission of 1 March 2001 he had adjusted the value of the subject matter of the dispute and that the new value exceeded the statutory threshold of HRK 100,000. On 20 May 2003 the Varaždin County Court dismissed his appeal. It held that, pursuant to the Civil Procedure Act, the relevant value of the subject matter of the dispute was the one indicated by the plaintiff in the statement of claim and that subsequent changes were of no relevance. It also corrected the calculation of the first-instance court, stating that, when converted into kunas, the value of the subject matter of the dispute which the applicant had indicated in his statement of claim in fact amounted to only HRK 0.10 (ten lipas).
11.  The applicant then lodged with the Supreme Court (Vrhovni sud Republike Hrvatske) a procedural appeal on points of law (revizija protiv rješenja) against that decision. On 25 February 2004 the Supreme Court, sitting as a panel composed of judges B.G., V.P.R., I.M., P.M. and G.G., quashed the lower-instances' decisions of 26 March and 20 May 2003. It held that, while it was true that the relevant value of the subject matter of a dispute was the one indicated by the plaintiff in the statement of claim, that rule did not apply if the plaintiff subsequently amended his or her claim. Because, in the present case, the applicant did amend his claim in his submission of 25 September 2001, in which he also demanded costs corresponding to the new value of the subject matter of the dispute indicated in his previous submission of 1 March 2001, the Supreme Court concluded that the applicant's appeal on points of law of 6 March 2003 was admissible. The Supreme Court returned the case to the first-instance court in order to serve the applicant's appeal on points of law of 6 March 2003 to the respondent party for reply (section 390(1) of the Civil Procedure Act). The relevant part of the Supreme Court's decision read as follows:
“I  The plaintiff's appeal on points of law is well founded. Therefore, the decision of the Varaždin County Court, no. Gž-569/03 of 20 May 2003 and the decision of the Varaždin Municipal Court, no. P-274/92 of 26 March 2003 are hereby quashed and the case is remitted to the first-instance court for fresh proceedings.
II  The costs of the proceedings [incurred] in respect of this appeal on points of law shall be decided in a final decision.
Reasons
...
The appeal on points of law is well-founded.
...
A decision on whether the appeal on points of law is well-founded depends on the resolution of the procedural question which value of the subject matter of the dispute is relevant.
Section 40(2) of the Civil Procedure Act provides that when an action does not concern a sum of money, the relevant value shall be the value of the subject matter of the dispute indicated by the plaintiff in the statement of claim.
Once the value of the subject matter of the dispute has been indicated in this way, the plaintiff is not allowed to change it in the subsequent course of the proceedings, except in a case in which the action has been amended, in which case instead of the value of the subject matter of the dispute indicated in the statement of claim, [the plaintiff] is authorised to indicate a new value of the subject matter of the dispute.
In the case at issue, the following facts are important for determining the relevant value of the subject matter of the dispute and the admissibility of the appeal on points of law: 1.  By the action of 13 May 1998 the plaintiff sought that a certain immovable property be handed over into his possession, and indicated 1,000,000 [former Yugoslav] dinars as the value of the subject matter of the dispute, [the amount of] which today equals 0,10 [Croatian] kunas; 2.  In the submission of 1 March 2001 the plaintiff indicated a new value of the subject matter of the dispute in the amount of 101,000 [Croatian] kunas; 3.  By the submission of 25 September 2001 the plaintiff amended the action by adding to the existing claim that a certain immovable property be handed over into his possession the claim for issuance of the permission to register the property (clausula intabulandi), in order to record the ownership of that immovable property in the land register. In that submission, he specified the claim for costs of the proceedings in accordance with the value of the subject matter of the dispute of 101,000 [Croatian] kunas.
Having regard to such a procedural situation in respect of the value of the subject matter of the dispute, this court finds that in the case at issue the amount of 101,000 [Croatian] kunas has to be considered as the relevant value of the subject matter of the dispute, [that is,] the amount the plaintiff indicated in his submission of 1 March 2001 which [submission] preceded the amendment of the action. This is so because in the instant case it cannot be argued that the plaintiff has agreed that, even after the amendment of the action, the relevant value of the subject matter of the dispute should remain the one indicated in the statement of claim.
Namely, from the circumstances of the present case it may be rightly concluded that in his submission of 25 September 2001 the plaintiff failed to indicate the value of the subject matter of the dispute in the amount of 101,000 [Croatian] kunas, considering that he had already done so in the submission of 1 March 2001. This is especially so if one takes into account the fact that in the submission of 25 September 2001 he specified his claim for costs of the proceedings in accordance with the newly indicated value of the subject matter of the dispute.
Finding for these reasons that the value of the subject matter of the dispute of 101,000 [Croatian] kunas is [the] relevant [value] for determining the admissibility of the appeal on points of law, it cannot but be concluded, in accordance with section 382(3) of the Civil Procedure Act and section 10(3) of the 1999 Amendments to the Civil Procedure Act, that the appeal on points of law is admissible.
For these reasons the first and the second-instance decisions had to be quashed pursuant to section 394(1) taken in conjunction with section 400 of the Civil Procedure Act, and the case remitted to the first-instance court for fresh proceedings so that it can proceed with the appeal on points of law in accordance with section 390 of the Civil Procedure Act.”
12.  In the resumed proceedings, the Varaždin Municipal Court, in discharging its duties under section 390(3) of the Civil Procedure Act, forwarded the case file to the Supreme Court for a decision on the applicant's appeal on points of law of 6 March 2003.
13.  On 23 February 2005 the Supreme Court, sitting as a panel composed of judges P.M., I.M., V.P.R., G.G. and B.H., declared the applicant's appeal on points of law of 6 March 2003 inadmissible ratione valoris, finding that the value of the subject matter of the dispute was below the statutory threshold of HRK 100,000. This time the court held that the relevant value of the subject matter of the dispute was the one indicated by the plaintiff in the statement of claim and that, in the present case, that value was YUD 1,000,000, which, when converted into kunas, amounted to HRK 0.10. The relevant part of the Supreme Court's decision reads as follows:
“The plaintiff's appeal on points of law against the judgment of the Varaždin County Court, no. Gž-1046/02 of 26 November 2002 is hereby declared inadmissible.
Reasons
...
The appeal on points of law is inadmissible.
Pursuant to section 382(2) of the Civil Procedure Act, an appeal on points of law is inadmissible in pecuniary disputes where ... the value of the subject matter of the dispute of the contested part of the final judgment does not exceed 100,000 [Croatian] kunas.
Pursuant to section 40(2) of the Civil Procedure Act, in a case where an action does not concern a sum of money, the relevant value shall be the value of the subject matter of the dispute indicated by the plaintiff in the statement of claim.
Pursuant to section 10(3) of the 1999 Amendments to the Civil Procedure Act, this provision applies to all proceedings in which a final decision of a second-instance court was rendered after the entry into force of the 1999 Amendments, [that is, after] 6 November 1999.
The case at issue concerns a pecuniary dispute where the claim is directed at the handover of (immovable) property, issuance of a land register document, so that, in accordance with the cited legislation, the relevant value of the subject matter of the dispute is the one indicated by the plaintiff in the statement of claim.
The value of the subject matter of the dispute indicated in the statement of claim is 1,000,000 [former Yugoslav] dinars, [the amount of] which after the denomination equals 0,1 [Croatian] kunas.
Given that the second-instance judgment of the Varaždin County Court, no. Gž-1046/02 was rendered on 26 November 2002, it follows that the appeal on points of law is inadmissible.”
14.  On 3 October 2005 the applicant lodged a constitutional complaint against that Supreme Court decision of 23 February 2005, alleging a violation of his constitutional right to a fair hearing by pointing out the discrepancy between that decision and the one of 25 February 2004. On 8 February 2007 the Constitutional Court (Ustavni sud Republike Hrvatske) dismissed the applicant's complaint and, on 15 March 2007, served its decision on his representative. It took note of the applicant's argument concerning conflicting decisions of the Supreme Court, but held that the contested decision was in line with the relevant provisions of the Civil Procedure Act and that the proceedings before the ordinary courts had not been contrary to his constitutional right to a fair hearing.